Fish off the boats.
Dosa off the tawa.
Mangalorean coastal food in Basavanagudi. Every dish marked for heat, so you can eat as hot as you like and no hotter.
What people come for
Six dishes the kitchen is proudest of. The rest are on the menu.
Crisp rice wafers you break into a thin, hot chicken curry at the table.
Red, sour and very hot, roasted in ghee until it's nearly dry. With neer dosa.
Whole mackerel in a rava and red masala crust, shallow fried on the tawa.
Prawns tossed dry with grated coconut and a roasted masala.
Thin rice crepes, soft and lacy. Three to a plate, with coconut chutney.
Lunch on a banana leaf: rice, sambar, two vegetables, rasam, payasam and papad.
Pick your heat
Slide down and the hot dishes drop off the list. Tick vegetarian, or no seafood, and the menu shrinks to what you'll eat.
- Mains
- Mains
- Starters
- Starters
- Rice and breads
- Thali
- Goli bajeStarters
Soft, fluffy fritters of maida and curd, with coconut chutney.
- Kane rava fryStarters
Ladyfish in a semolina crust. The fish the kitchen is named after.
- Chicken sukka with kadubuMains
Dry chicken with coconut, and kadubu, rice dumplings steamed in jackfruit leaves.
- Vegetable gassiMains
Mixed vegetables in a coconut and red chilli gravy. Ask for it with kori rotti.
- PundiRice and breads
Rice balls steamed, then tossed in coconut and mustard.
- Kadale bele payasamSweet
Chana dal and jaggery payasam with coconut milk.
Book a table
Closed Mondays. Lunch 12 to 3, dinner 7 to 11. Fridays and Saturdays fill first.
Before you come
- Do I need to book?
- For dinner on Friday and Saturday, yes. Lunch is first come; most days there's a table within ten minutes.
- Can you make it less hot?
- Most dishes, yes: the masala is ground fresh each morning. The ghee roast can't go below hot without stopping being a ghee roast.
- What's good for vegetarians?
- The thali at lunch, neer dosa with vegetable gassi, goli baje and pundi. The vegetarian dishes are cooked in a separate pan.
- Is the fish fresh?
- It comes up from Mangaluru twice a week by bus. When the monsoon fishing ban is on, June to July, the fish dishes come off the menu.
- Can we bring a group?
- Up to 16 on the long table, booked a day ahead. For more, we close the room.
- Do you deliver?
- Not yet. Neer dosa goes soggy in a box in about ten minutes, and we'd rather you ate it here.